Remember the Typo Keyboard Cover for iPhone? BlackBerry doesn’t like the fact that these guys didn’t pay a dime to use such keyboard design, which is apparently an intellectual property of the Canadian company. So they’re suing them, claiming that Typo Products is infringing on their patents covering keyboards.
“This is a blatant infringement against BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard, and we will vigorously protect our intellectual property against any company that attempts to copy our unique design,” BlackBerry’s general counsel and chief legal officer Steve Zipperstein said in a statement. “We are flattered by the desire to graft our keyboard onto other smartphones, but we will not tolerate such activity without fair compensation for using our intellectual property and our technological innovations.”
Typo Products on its end plans to fight the case in court. “Although we respect Blackberry and its intellectual property, we believe that Blackberry’s claims against Typo lack merit and we intend to defend the case vigorously,” the company said in a statement to The Verge. “We are excited about our innovative keyboard design, which is the culmination of years of development and research.”
As for those pre-orders, they shouldn’t be affected.
Now that I’m thinking, perhaps BlackBerry should launch a series of these keyboard cases for many popular smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, LG G2, Nexus 5 and so on. I know one person who would buy such case (me). 😉